260 Commercial Aspects of Sport Fishing 



100 and 200 pounds per acre. A part of the exceptional fishing must be 

 attributed to the fact that the fishing pressure was so low and intermittent 

 that the bass probably had little opportunity to become "hook-wise." The 

 Supervisor of Fisheries for the Club believed that crayfish ingested by 

 bass imparted a musty flavor to bass flesh; therefore it was thought that 

 the addition of minnows not only increased the poundage of bass in the 

 lakes, but also improved their flavor. He believed that the bass were 

 eating minnows in preference to crayfish, because the former were always 

 readily available. These assumptions could not be verified at the time the 

 catch records were tabulated. 



Channel catfish have been used as a subject for feeding experiments. 

 Swingle ^^ developed a procedure for feeding channel catfish fingerlings 

 on prepared food and was able to build up populations of 2000 or more 

 pounds per acre of fish of useful sizes. Before experiments were begun, 

 fingerling channel catfish used for stocking were treated for external and 

 internal parasites and inspected for disease. 



Following these production experiments, Prather ^^ tested the sport- 

 fishing potential of these high -poundage channel catfish populations. In 

 the first experiment, a 2.2-acre pond was stocked in spring with 1000 

 channel catfish fingerlings per acre, fertilized with seven applications of 

 8-8-0 at the rate of 100 pounds per acre per application and fed with 

 fish food (Auburn No. 1 containing 42 per cent protein and composed of 

 peanut oil meal, soybean oil meal, fish meal, and distillers dried solubles ) 

 at the seasonal rate of 2236 pounds of feed per acre. In September, when 

 the catfish averaged 1.0 pound each, the lake was opened to public fishing 

 at $1.00 per fisherman per day, with a catch limit of 3 fish. Fishing success 

 was poor and few people were able to catch their limit. Between Septem- 

 ber 17 and October 14, sixty-four people caught an average of 1.25 cat- 

 fish each at a rate of 0.3 pound of fish per hour. When the pond was 

 drained in December, it contained 868 channel catfish, weighting 882.3 

 pounds per acre. This experiment was considered a failure from the 

 standpoint of fishing, although the production was more than 800 pounds 

 per acre. 



In a second experiment a 12.4-acre pond was stocked in February, 

 1958 with 2000 3-inch channel catfish fingerlings, 1000 fathead minnows, 

 and 66 largemouth bass fingerlings per acre, fertilized with 4 applications 

 of 100 pounds of 8-8-0 per acre, and fed 5423.9 pounds of Auburn No. 2 

 fish food (like No. 1, but with peanut cake instead of peanut oil meal) 

 per acre between April 1 and October 3. 



This pond was opened to public fishing during the latter part of 

 September when the catfish weighed 0.7 pound each. In this first fishing 

 period (September 24 to December 8) permits were $1.00 for a limit of 

 3 catfish and 3 bass. The fishing season for the next year began March 14, 



